Swords and Magic
by MadyLuvsAnime
Summary: Kirito is a distant, solitary player that likes helping others to brag about his game prowess, and is trying to beat the game for the sake of the other players. He wants to do it single handedly, but one girl just won't seem to stay out of his play through and let him do that. SAO AU, 200,000 players, 5,000 beta testers, in-game magic, and only one beater.


**Woah, look at me, I'm not dead! I know I have another unfinished story that hasn't been updated in months, but it is really hard to get motivation for that... and inspiration comes where it comes. I'll update that other one soon, and no promises on this one.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own SAO. Which is why I'm rewriting it, I don't like it.**

 **Also: If you do like it... oh, well you're quite alone out there. But hey, I'm not judging.**

* * *

It was the year 2022, and the media couldn't resist telling stories of the newest hit game, Sword Art Online. This wasn't any ordinary game, of course. This game was ahead of its time, the work of the future. New Nerve Gear technology was required to log on to the game's huge servers. This nerve gear used microwaves to collect brain activity the user sends out for movements, and translates them into code. These movements then happen to an in-game avatar that the player shares sensations in the video game with. Several games had come out before trying to achieve full dives with these advanced technologies, but players of those other games felt things were missing. They said movement still felt limited and still could only see and hear things in the game.

Sword Art Online was said to be different, though. The 5,000 beta testers say it was an expansive land with countless skills and millions of ways to customize an avatar. Any movement could be translated, resulting in smoother gameplay. Most impressive of all, beta testers have written rave reviews about feeling the scales of dragons, smelling made up flowers, and tasting food unrivaled in real life. Knowing all of this, Kazuto Kirigaya was not surprised to hear the broadcaster say that all 200,000 copies of the game, each selling for $50 (not even including the nerve gear) sold out the instant they went on sale. The lady on the screen also said that this was just an initial sale, and that no profit had yet been made. With server rooms the size of universities and countless years of coding and graphic designs, the black haired boy was also not surprised to hear that the game cost more than $10,000,000 to make. He was only half listening to the TV talking about how long some gamers waited in line, or about how people came from the UK to be able to get a copy before they sold out. Some people learned Japanese just to be able to play on foreign servers, apparently. 100,000 copies were sold in Japan alone, and an additional 75,000 in the U.S., leaving the small amount left for the less fortunate countries.

His head of black hair was covered by a gray, sleek helmet attached to several wires. He patted himself up and down quickly, wanting to log on right as the official servers opened up. As colors flooded his vision, he cried out, "Link Start!"

The world was just as he remembered it; beautiful.

* * *

Yellow light danced on the players logging in for the first time. The looks on their faces as they appeared in a blue cloud of crystals was amusing. He understood their amazement. As many times as he looked at it, he still couldn't believe something so artificial could look so magical. Green mountains surrounded the fields and towns of the first floor. Strange animals with breathtaking wingspans flew overhead. His breath hitched as he witnessed the city's shops open up again from his view of the field. So many people were logged on, as if all 200,000 players were in one server. This would make an mmo like this a lot harder, but he was ready for a challenge. The avatars of everyone had several different body types, face types, and hair colors or styles. He witnessed one petite looking girl hook up with a strong seventeen year old, and was reminded of why he loved games. He almost spun in a circle to observe the scenery and the looks of players happy to be meeting people with similar interests for the first time. All to think several server rooms in the real world were making these connections possible. He decided spinning would contrast his own avatar's appearance, though, so he simply closed his eyes and smelled the air around him, amazed at the scent of plants that didn't exist. His hard, masculine eyes opened once more, and his long, straight black hair followed him as he craned his neck up. He let out a breath of amazement and headed down to the town of beginnings.

He was surprised at the amount of loot people were already buying and selling on the day of the launch. He took in the joy on other player's faces, but didn't stop for anything; Not the tasty dragon berries, or even a sword crafted from a strong, gold colored rock. None of it was good enough to spend his lack of money on yet, so he walked through the town with his eyes deadset on a path ahead to the next town. He figured on the way, he could gain XP through killing every boar on the way and beat all other 199,999 players to next level loot. He was only stopped when someone grabbed his arm.

"Hey there!" called a male voice. The guy sounded like he would be in his early 20's. The younger boy turned around with a questioning look. The man had long, pink hair, a bandanna tied around his head, and a sloppy, stance that didn't match his clean shaven appearance.

"...Yeah?" he responded cautiously.

"You look like you know how this game works, can you help me out? I don't even know how to find my friends in this big mess." As he spoke, he bashfully scratched the back of his head.

The black haired kid looked at him from head to toe, then spoke. "Well, if you already friended them, then all you have to do is go to your friends list, and it shows their location on a map. Like so." As he finished, he swiped his fingers, opening up a white menu with lots of options on it. He scrolled past 'Options', 'potions', 'magic', 'skills', 'equipment', 'hotkeys', and 'requests' until he got to the 'friends/ parties' menu option. He clicked on it and it opened up an empty list. "This is normally where it lists your parties and friends, but I don't have any yet. All you have to do is click on the friend you want to find." He swiped the sleek, white menu to close it. He took pride in his knowledge of the game, he was happy to share what he knew.

"That's great, but I really need help learning how to attack..." His posture got even sloppier as he admitted this. "I don't get how these skills work, and the magic seems really limited."

Kazuto put a hand on his chin to contemplate what he should do. Realistically, he should have gotten a head start on the next town, but since the opening ceremony hasn't started yet, he figured he would be teleported back to the town of beginnings when that went to happen. He figured he could help out someone before the opening ceremony, as long as it didn't lead to any party formation. He suddenly nodded, and agreed. "Alright, follow me to the boar fields. I'll teach you some tricks."

They went right to the field, and as the guy's instructor, Kazuto told the pink haired man to start killing boars to show him what he did know. He aimed at the boars with sloppy techniques, and never found a way to hit a single boar. The black haired teen sighed and face palmed.

"Let's start by teaching you the basics; formation. This game allows you to make any kind of movement, so you have to move just right to tell the game you're about to can't just move any way and expect to hit." His instructing voice was flawless.

"I can't expect to hit no matter what! This thing moves too fast!"

Kazuto put his right foot forward and left foot back, bending his knees and loosening his stance. He picked up a rock off the ground. "Anything in this game can be a weapon if you do it right. All you do is draw your arm back like so..." He held his arm over his hand with the pebble clutched between his fingers. His elbow was bent fluidly. "Once your skill starts to activate..." The rock started to glow red. "You slash!" In one movement, he drew his arm out to the side and flicked his wrist like he was holding a sword. He let go of the pebble at the right moment. It went flying right into the ugly pig's butt. "The game mechanics make sure you hit every time." The green bar next to the boar went down only a bit.

The older man huffed. "You make this look easy," he complained. He put his feet in a sloppy stance of his own, held his curved sword over his head, and when it started to be surrounded by a yellow aura, he slashed. He felt his sword drag his body right to his target, leaving a large red gash. The boar exploded into crystals, and a white menu came up signalling that the boar was killed and he was awarded 23 XP. His eyes lit up with a childlike joy as he copied the move on the next boar.

"Addicting, isn't it?" commented the observing instructor. The disciple walked over to the black haired teen.

"Hey, wanna hang out until my pizza gets to my place? I'm inviting my party over, so I'm sure they are logging out right now to get ready for dinner. Besides, I want some in-game friends."

Kazuto considered the invitation. "Yeah, I guess we could talk for a bit."

"I just realized I never got your name. Wanna friend me?"

"Sure, I guess you could just message me any time you have a question." The teen swiped his fingers to go through the menu and select to request to friend who's username was 'Klein.'

"Kirito, that's a cool username." Kirito nodded. Then, from behind Klein, a boar came up and hit him from behind. He went flying, and started holding his leg in pain. The teen rolled his eyes.

"You can't feel pain in the game, Klein."

"Oh, right," he said, embarrassed. "Just a habit."

Both boys watched as the sun was setting in game. They figured the opening ceremony would happen soon.

"Oh, geez, the pizza's supposed to get here at 5:30. It's already 5:20!" The man's stomach growled. "Right on time, I guess. Maybe I'll see you around, Kirito." The long pink haired guy opened up his menu and clicked on options. There were three options listed, but one of them was blank. "Huh, that's weird..." he muttered.

"What's weird?"

"I can't log out," he said. "Must be some bug."

Kirito opened up his options menu to see the third option also blank. "The server committee must be killing themselves over this bug. There's no backup log out system."

"...You mean you can only log out in-game?"

He nodded. "We're stuck until they fix it."

"Well, 200,000 people are playing, of course the server would have a bug."

"Maybe what happened was... huh?" Kirito looked down to see his body glowing blue. It was the animation for teleporting. The opening ceremony must have been starting!

* * *

One of his favorite parts about the city was the architecture. The town of beginnings, like most things in SAO, were based off of a Roman coliseum. The center of town was a wide open circular plaza surrounded by arches. It was quite a fitting place for the opening ceremony to be held. 200,000 people were cramped into the largest part of the city. He looked at the confusion on everyone's face as they all tried to figure out what was going on. There were lots of people who mentioned how they couldn't log out, and lots more were assuring people that it was just so they didn't miss the opening ceremony. They all looked to the sky for answers as a lone red hexagon arose with one word on it, "warning".

Suddenly, that one hexagon multiplied into many, all baring similar messages. Slowly, blood seeped down from the red dome placed around them all. The area was locked; no entry could be made in or out as the blood gathered and formed a large caped figure.

"Hello players... and welcome... to Aincrad." People gasped at his intimidatingly deep voice as the cloaked being spoke. "I am the creator of this game, Kayaba. This is my world. Isn't it gorgeous? As you might have noticed, on the main menu, there is no option to log out." People started shouting all sorts of things as he talked, from accusing jeers to calming words of it being 'just a bug'. "I will assure you that this is no mistake." Collective gasps filled the city center.

"Wait, Kirito, didn't you say there's no other way out?" Klein asked, raising an eyebrow at what the man was implying. Kirito nodded, and it was suddenly made very clear.

"You will not be allowed to leave the game!" As the voice announced the terrible news, some people started breaking down and crying. "But that's not all. To bring my world to life for all 199,856 of you, if you die in the game, I have programmed the helmets you all are wearing right now to overload your brain with microwaves. For all you that don't know what I mean by this, it means you die!" He flashed his red cloak in an intimidating manner. More people dropped to their knees in disbelief and tears.

"Wait!" Someone dared to speak to the man that held their life. "We have loved ones, surly they'll take off our nerve gear! We don't need to suffer through this" His proclamation gave hope to some of the people who heard but that was all stripped away by the supposed Kayaba. Around the cloaked figure, screens with the news playing on them showed up on flat, holographic screens.

"Don't worry about that. I have already informed your family members or friends that taking off your nerve gear will ALSO cause the helmets to kill you. In fact, over 100 people have already died from the family members that wouldn't listen." Some people gasped in shock; Probably friends of the first victims that thought they simply disconnected. One person in front of Kirito was also suddenly pulled from the game.

"The only way out of this game is for a player to pass all 100 floors in this game. That is why everyone is on the same server. Once a party defeats the last boss on floor 100, the boss room will be cleared and anyone who makes it to floor 100 can leave the game." Players either groaned or sighed with this news. They were all thinking the same thing; Sure, at least only one party has to beat it, but could one party even beat the whole game before too many died?

"And if you are still not convinced that this game is realistic enough, I have given everyone an item in their inventory." At this new information, Kirito, Klein, and countless others opened their menus and chose to hold the item; a mirror. It showed their avatars.

All of a sudden, blue light surrounded every last player. When Kirito came out of the blue light, suddenly everyone looked different. Even Klein, whom he didn't recognize at first sight.

"Woah dude, you look... different," Klein commented. He himself had shorter hair and a scruffy, bearded face. His hair still bore a pink color, though.

He reached a hand to his jet black hair and felt it shorter than he remembered designing it. He looked into the mirror, and who stared back at him was his youthful, real life face. He looked over and saw where previously a cute looking couple were standing, but now two boys were.

"Ew, you're a catfish!" the chubby, yellow haired dude said to the scrawny, brown haired one. "You lied to me!"

"You're not seventeen and macho!" responded the accused, skinny boy. Kirito had to chuckle at the display, but suddenly realized he must have looked very immature doing so with his softer, feminine eyes.

"And with this, the opening ceremony is over. Now begins Sword Art Online!" Kayaba disappeared from the skies, and people were finally allowed to leave again. He reached out to Klein.

"C'mon, now the rush to the next city is more important. We gotta start running now before all the loot in this town is gone!" Kirito started running, dragging Klein behind him by the wrist. Klein stopped him in an alleyway and took a breather.

"Kirito, I appreciate the offer and all, but me nor my team are skilled enough to make it to the next town. After I find my team, we're gonna stay here for a bit." As he explained this, he stood up straighter and held out his hand. "I can still message you when I need help, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." Kirito shook Klein's hand a firm goodbye. "I'll see you around!" The teen turned around, waving farewell to behind him.

"Oh hey, and... Kirito? Your real face? It suits you better."

"...Thanks. You looked goofy with long hair, and manlier with a beard."

With that, the two parted ways. Kirito started his journey to the new city, leveling up on boars and wolves along the way. When he got to the city, he raided it for what it was worth, did a few quests, and moved on to the next city. No one caught up to his advancements until the fourth city he visited. Focusing mostly on speed, special skills, and healing, Kirito journeyed alone through the world of Kayaba's imagination alone, with one thought on his mind.

What a genius, creative bastard.


End file.
